While most sources, even the Department of Labor, credit Peter McGuire with the origination of Labor Day (1882), recent evidence suggests that the true father of Labor Day may in fact be another famous union leader of the 19th Century, Matthew Maguire.

Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday on February 21, 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day.

Frohnmayerwas an attorney, politician, and university administrator from Oregon. He was the 15th president of the University of Oregon(UO), serving from 1994 to 2009. His tenure as president was the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He was the first native Oregonian to run the UO. Frohnmayer previously served as Oregon Attorney General from 1981 to 1991, and subsequently served as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law before serving as president of the university. He died Monday night after battling prostate cancer.

Born in Coos Bay, Oregon, Prefontaine was a long-distance runner who set seven national records before an untimely death in a car accident. He played football and basketball before discovering cross country in eighth grade. He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.

A Port Orford Cedar that was planted just before the turn of the century in front of Portland City Hall.

The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was a Pacific Northwest windstorm, that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, 1962. It originated from Typhoon Freda and is considered to be the benchmark of extra tropical wind storms. The storm ranks among the most intense to strike the region since at least 1948, likely since the January 9, 1880 "Great Gale"and snowstorm. The storm is a contender for the title of most powerful extra tropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the 20th century. Wind gusts reached 116 miles per hour in Portland, 127 miles per hour in Corvallis, and in excess of 145 miles per hour on the Oregon coast. Nearly 50 fatalities were attributed to the windstorm.